


All the Stars

by vio1et



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-23 00:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20883398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vio1et/pseuds/vio1et
Summary: After an argument with his long-term boyfriend, Shinwon wakes up having returned to the first day they met.





	All the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> been feeling really soft toward these two with the huishinki videos lately uwu they rly give me old married couple vibes lmao 
> 
> and yes once again i have made everybody the same age because it’s easier LOL
> 
> i had a lot of fun writing this i hope u guys enjoy reading it lol as always thank you for reading!!

“I’m so sick of having this fight.”

Hui’s words, for the first time all night, resonate with Shinwon. He and Hui had been together for a long time. Hui liked to say they grew up together, but Shinwon wasn’t sure that’d actually happened. They’d definitely gotten older together, but they were still having the same arguments they had been having since they first met. 

The source of today’s fight was, as usual, that Hui felt like their relationship was stagnant, which Shinwon knew was his way of saying he wanted to get married already. It was just the same repackaged fight they’d had years earlier about moving in together, and before that it had been about wanting to meet Shinwon’s parents. The pair had been fighting because Hui wanted more and Shinwon was happy how they were since before they’d even truly gotten together. Shinwon remembered that because the first incarnation of this fight had, of course, been about whether or not they were _boyfriends_. 

Hui always won out in the end. Instead of being casual and having no pressure, they gave in to labels. Instead of keeping their business between the two of them, Shinwon had to answer to his mom about his relationship constantly. Instead of respecting each other’s individual spaces, Shinwon slept with one of Hui’s legs wrapped completely around his body every night. This time, Shinwon wasn’t going to budge. He didn’t want to get married, not now or ever. They didn’t need to. He loved Hui; why wasn’t that enough for him?

“Me, too,” Shinwon bites back bitterly. “That’s why it would be great if you would stop yelling at me about this all the time.”

“I’m not yelling at you,” Hui snaps. “I just want to have a conversation about this. You always escalate things.”

“It’s hard not to escalate the conversation when you start talking about how our relationship is supposedly broken,” Shinwon replies. “You make it sound like we have some miserable existence.”

“It’s not miserable, but it’s not what I want or need,” Hui declares. “I love you, but this entire thing feels like a waste of time sometimes.”

“Entire thing?” Shinwon repeats back at him, completely throttled by Hui’s choice of words. “Our relationship? It’s all just a _waste of time_ to you?”

“I mean, maybe,” Hui admits. “We’re not kids anymore, Shinwon. Everything can’t be the same as it was forever.”

Shinwon feels everything inside him sink, and his heart shatters so violently Shinwon swears he can hear the shards of what was left of his being hit the floor. Shinwon expects himself to be overcome with sadness, but the feeling never comes. Instead, he gets angrier and angrier as he realized how pissed off it made him that Hui could just call this all a _waste_ without feeling bad about it at all. 

“How can you say that?” Shinwon asks. “You truly think everything we have is a waste without a piece of paper to tell you it’s not?” 

“It’s not about the piece of paper. It’s about what we need and our futures,” Hui snaps. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life like I’m in my mid-twenties. It’s not that hard of a concept to understand.”

“Oh, yeah, because _tradition_ is first on your list of needs,” Shinwon mocks back. Hui was awfully bold for someone who was the front man of a pseudo-punk band with bright red hair when they met. 

“You’re right. _Fuck_ marriage. I hate whenever two people who love each other decide to be together for the rest of their lives. It’s sickening. Society is horrible,” Hui rants sarcastically. 

“Why the fuck do we need to formally decide that, Hui? Do you ever think about that? I know how I feel about you. Why do I have to tell everybody else?” 

“God, for someone who lives off attention, you sure do hate the idea of a day that’s entirely about you. Why is that? Because I’m there? Because it involves commitment?” Hui snarks, clearly only getting madder the longer they talked. Shinwon was still in the red; he was sure Hui was getting there, too. 

“I don’t know how to tell you this, but we might as well be fucking common law married at this point. I feel like I’m at peak commitment to you,” Shinwon barks. “Which, again, brings me back to why you need a piece of pap—”

“It’s not a fucking piece of paper! Stop saying that! Fuck!” Hui practically yells. “Do you not want an actual life together?”

“We already have one! That’s what I keep saying over and over!” Shinwon replies, maintaining Hui’s volume. 

“No, we don’t! We go to work separately, we come home and breathe in the same room for a couple of hours, then we go to sleep. Repeat every day of our lives. Is that fulfilling to you?” 

“Yes! Yes, that’s what I keep telling you,” Shinwon says exasperatedly. 

Hui pauses. For a minute, Shinwon thinks _he_ is going to be the one to cave for once. Shinwon imagines them apologizing and snuggling into the couch to continue binging whatever is next in their Netflix queue. Unfortunately, Hui wasn’t the type. 

“Fuck this,” Hui sighs. “I don’t care what you do with your life. I just don’t know if I can be in it anymore.”

“Don’t be dramatic, Hui,” Shinwon orders, stretching out one of his arms and resting it on Hui’s shoulder. Hui pushes it away, and Shinwon realizes that he actually meant what he was saying. “Hui—”

“If you want to live your life separately from mine so badly, this is your chance,” he says firmly. Shinwon closes his eyes, trying to calm down even slightly. He was angry before. Now he was infuriated. 

“You know what? I will. I don’t need you. It’ll be nice to finally have some fucking space. I wish I’d had it a long time ago,” Shinwon declares. And, god, he meant it. He didn’t think he would. When the thoughts had started pooling in his head weeks ago, he thought they were harsh. Saying it out loud, though, he knew. He needed distance, to be able to breathe without Hui nagging him. Even when he sees the tears forming at the corners of Hui’s eyes, he doesn’t regret it. 

“Okay,” Hui says, trying his best not to let his voice crack. “I’ll go. Um, we can... figure out the rest tomorrow.”

“Cool,” Shinwon replies coldly. Hui just stares at him for a moment, then grabs his phone off the counter and storms out of their apartment. 

Once he’s gone, Shinwon makes his own dramatic exit, though it’s only to their room. He slams the door shut, flips down every picture of the two of them so he doesn’t have to make eye contact with Hui, then crawls into bed. He needed to nap off his anger. 

・・・

When Shinwon awakens, he feels like a decade of built up anger at Hui has been lifted from his shoulders. He opens his eyes, ready to start dividing up he and Hui’s things. Only, what he sees isn’t his apartment. It’s his college dorm. 

The room was so familiar, despite being so far off from Shinwon’s reality, that it felt like a dream in his memories sometimes. The room had two beds and two desks that mirrored each other, along with a closet on one side and access to the bathroom they shared with the people next door on the other. 

The walls were standard white, and he and his roommate, Hongseok, weren’t much for decorating. Hongseok’s mother had come by when they moved in and hung up photos of his family and filled his desk with superhero-themed trinkets and collectibles. In contrast, Shinwon’s side was mostly empty, except for a single poster of the Beatles he’d purchased semi-ironically in response to Hongseok saying nobody liked the Beatles as much as they liked _telling people_ they liked the Beatles. 

Shinwon’s confusion doesn’t totally set in at first; he flipped on his side to see Hongseok, still asleep across the way and his alarm clock, which read 7:52. He starts to worry about being late for class and climbs out of bed to quickly get dressed. Only when he starts looking for his backpack does he realize he hasn’t been enrolled in college for four years. 

At first, he doesn’t freak out. He’d had dreams about being in college a lot after he graduated. Hui had insisted it was because he was afraid of the future. Shinwon always thought that was bullshit; he’d spent his entire adult life in college at that point. His brain was just going back to what it knew. 

Still, he wasn’t exactly itching to hear about Hongseok’s sexual conquests or attend a lecture at eight in the morning, so he decides it’s time to exit the dream. He tries all the tricks. He pinches himself; he looks down at his hands. Oddly enough, he feels the squeezing on his skin and only five fingers are present. He tries blinking and jolting himself awake. Nothing. 

Shinwon decides all he can do is just go with it all until he wakes up naturally. He grabs his bag and heads out the door, but halfway down the hall something occurs to him. A perk of returning to college? He could go to his favorite coffee shop again. Judging by the dorm hall they lived in, this was Hongseok and Shinwon’s freshman year, meaning Shinwon was about five minutes from being late to his morning world history lecture. He could either run to class or accept defeat and get coffee. His choice is easy. 

Brewster’s was a tiny little place, just off campus and eternally friendly. Hongseok and Shinwon had stopped in there at three or four in the morning during their orientation week in an attempt to sober up a bit before they faced their RA. They’d immediately fallen in love, though Hongseok had been adamantly against coffee before that. Shinwon always reveled in the irony of Hongseok insisting caffeine was bad for you. Binge drinking at frat parties was fine, but he drew the line at espresso. 

Coincidentally, Shinwon had also fallen in a different kind of love there— with Hui. Looking back on it now, Hui was like a different person when they’d met. He was outgoing and spontaneous, rebellious and fun. Now, Hui had mellowed out. He was still friendly and talkative, but he’d dialed back all the extreme parts of his personality. He didn’t like to do crazy things on a whim, and his idea of fun was hanging out at the bar and drinking so little they could legally drive themselves home. 

When Shinwon enters Brewster’s, he realizes the point of this stupid dream. His heart still yearned for Hui, even if his brain was telling him he’d had enough. So there he was, standing at the counter with his fire red hair and old, tattered guitar case. Shinwon knew exactly what day he was fantasizing of after getting a single look at Hui’s grungy, plaid shirt and ripped up jeans. This was the first day they’d met, the first time he’d ever seen Hui. Even now, Shinwon felt something inside him flutter. He supposed he’d never stop being in love with _this_ Hui, no matter who he was or wasn’t in the present. 

Still, Shinwon didn’t want to talk to him. He’d said what he needed to say to Hui in real life, and he hadn’t known this Hui for a long time. All he wanted was his Brewster’s. Then, he’d sneak into the back of class late, or maybe he’d just go back to his dorm and try falling asleep as a method to wake up. 

“Thank you!” Hui sings once the barista hands him his coffee. He turns around, and suddenly he and Shinwon are face-to-face. When this had happened to Shinwon for real, he’d felt like he was frozen and had immediately decided he couldn’t leave Brewster’s without Hui’s number. Today, all he could think was that Hui had gotten infinitely better looking as he got older. At least the current Hui had _that_ going for him. “Um, excuse me.”

Hui pushes past Shinwon and takes a seat at the furthest table in the back of the shop. Shinwon doesn’t turn to look at him, but he knew from experience Hui had immediately pulled out his songbook. He had recently finished the music for a song he was working on, but he couldn’t find any inspiration for lyrics. True to Hui’s hopeless romantic nature, it later became the first song he ever wrote about Shinwon.

Instead of stealing glances at Hui, he just orders his coffee and waits. At first, he doesn’t even want to look at Hui, but the longer he stands there the more he has to force himself to count the cups in the display behind the register or pick at his nails so he’s not tempted. When he finally has his coffee and is about to leave, he makes the mistake of letting himself have one, final glance at the Hui he’d fallen in love with. It’s a mistake. 

Shinwon has to talk to him. He has to. How can he resist this opportunity? It all felt so real, and he’d give anything to go back before things got so complicated. All he wanted to do was sneak around with Hui and listen to him play his sometimes-not-great songs on his guitar. 

“Hey,” Shinwon says softly as he approaches Hui’s table. Hui looks up at him under furrowed eyebrows, and for a minute, Shinwon feels excitement and panic like he’s really meeting Hui for the first time. “I saw your guitar, and I couldn’t resist talking to you. I want to learn to play so bad, but I really suck.”

The line had worked like a charm the first time around. Hui _loved_ to talk about music, and Shinwon had just nodded along like he was the most interesting person in the world. Soon enough, Hui was telling Shinwon about a gig he was playing that night. They hung out afterwards, and that’d been their first, unofficial date. 

“Oh, I learned to play when I was little. You just have to practice,” Hui replies, taking a sip of his drink awkwardly.

“I’m so jealous,” Shinwon says. 

“Ha, yeah,” Hui responds blankly. Shinwon felt panic building up inside of him. This isn’t how it went. Hui had been so happy to talk to him. This time, it was like he just wanted him to leave. 

“Do you play other instruments?” Shinwon asks, still hovering over his table. Shinwon knew, of course. Hui had been a band geek in middle school, graduated to garage band stoner in high school and eventually made his way up to semi-legitimate act that had a few tracks break the top 100. Nowadays, his band, Emerald, hadn’t released an album in years, but they liked to play scattered shows from time-to-time and had a decent-sized fan base. Hui primarily worked as a sound engineer, though. Over time, he’d learned to play basically every instrument Shinwon could think of. 

“Yeah,” Hui confirms. “Saxophone and piano, plus the easy ones.”

“The easy ones?” Shinwon asks. 

“You know, harmonica, ukulele... the ones anyone can play,” Hui lists. Shinwon nods. 

“God, I wish I could play _anything_,” Shinwon enthuses. One of his best memories when they first started dating was Hui teaching him to play piano. He’d been _horrible_, but Hui had insisted he was doing perfect. _Hot Cross Buns_ could’ve been unrecognizable, but Hui would’ve still insisted the Shinwon Remix was better than the original. 

“You can always learn! Good luck,” Hui says politely, then looks back down at his journal. Shinwon bit his lip. Why wasn’t anything he was saying working? This dream sucked. All he wanted was to experience the Hui that was actually in love with him again, and his stupid brain wouldn’t even let him have that. He wanted out. Now. 

“This isn’t how this is supposed to go,” Shinwon whimpers. Hui looks back up quizzically. 

“I’m sorry?”

“You’re supposed to tell me about your gig tonight,” Shinwon reminds him, as though that’s going to make Hui reboot himself and suddenly act the way Shinwon wanted him to. 

“You clearly already know about it,” Hui says. He looked at Shinwon like he was crazy. Shinwon didn’t think he’d ever seen Hui genuinely _disgusted_ by him before. His anger never really came with disdain. 

“No, I don’t. You’re supposed to invite me,” Shinwon declares. His hope was that, even if this interaction went south, he could at least escape this god awful dream. 

“What are you talking about?” Hui asks. “I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“I know!” Shinwon cries. “I’m Shinwon. Nice to meet you.”

“It’s an open event. You’re welcome to come, weirdo,” Hui sneers, then quickly starts to gather his things to escape Brewster’s altogether. 

“See you there!” Shinwon declares. Hui just scoffs, grabbing his guitar case and leaving. 

Shinwon wants to seep into the floor and become one with his beloved Brewster’s, never to emerge again. Then, he notices Hui’s songbook, still on the table. Hui must’ve moved so quickly he forgot it. Shinwon grabs the journal and shoves it into his backpack, figuring he could spend however long until he finally wakes up perusing Hui’s old songs and walking down memory lane. 

Instead of heading to class, Shinwon just goes back to his dorm. It wasn’t like he needed to hear Professor What’s-His-Face teach him about ancient Rome _again_. Emperors, gladiators, Julius Caesar. He got it. 

When he reaches his room, he opens the door to find Hongseok has gone to class, but their friend, Yanan, is sitting cross-legged on his bed, reading one of Hongseok’s volumes of Batman comics. 

“Jesus, you scared me, Yanan,” Shinwon grumbles, closing their door and beginning to remove his shoes. “This is what we get for not locking the door.” 

“Oh, I’m not Yanan,” he says. “I mean, you‘ll have to call me that. But I’m not _him_, per se.”

”Of course you’re tripping. This dream just gets better and better,” Shinwon scowls. “You could at least wait until it’s not nine in the morning.”

“I am not on drugs,” Yanan insists, closing the book and putting it on the end of Hongseok’s bed. “I’m your travel guardian.”

“My _what_?” Shinwon snaps. “Can you go back to your own room? I have plans.”

“I can’t. I’m not Yanan,” the self-proclaimed fake Yanan reminds him. 

“Okay, this is truly the stupidest dream I’ve ever had,” Shinwon complains. 

“It’s not a dream,” he insists. “They sent you here.”

“Who the fuck is _them_?” Shinwon asks. 

“Them!” Yanan replies. “The capitalized, proper noun Them. They’re in charge of love matters.”

“Of course They are,” Shinwon says with a sigh. “They’re mad I’m upset with Hui?”

“No,” Yanan states. “They’re giving you what you wanted. You wanted space. This is your chance to fix your mistake.”

“My mistake?” Shinwon repeats.

“Yeah, falling in love with Hui,” he explains. 

“That wasn’t a mistake,” Shinwon declares. “Hui’s... frustrating, but he’s mine.” 

“That’s the point of this,” Yanan says plainly. Shinwon got the impression Mr. Fake Yanan thought he was an idiot. “You get a chance for him to not be.”

Shinwon stopped. He hated that. Even as mad as he was at Hui, he wouldn’t give up their relationship for anything. He hadn’t even _thought_ about anybody else like that since he and Hui had gotten together. It felt wrong to even imagine himself with anybody else now. 

“What if I don’t want that chance? Can I just wake up now?” Shinwon asks. Yanan shakes his head. 

“Afraid not,” he says, rejecting Shinwon’s proposal. “You can’t leave here until _someone_ falls for you. It’s up to you who it is.”

“You’re saying if I want to wake up I have to woo my boyfriend who I have been dating since dinosaurs roamed the earth?” Shinwon asks. Yanan rolls his eyes. 

“You’re not asleep,” Yanan corrects him. “We’re in the past, stupid.”

“This isn’t real, so I’m asleep, _stupid_,” Shinwon snaps.

“It’s real,” Yanan says, standing up and approaching Shinwon. He lifts his foot, then slams it down right on top of Shinwon’s. Shinwon yelps, grabbing his toe in pain. “Feel that?”

“Fuck,” Shinwon grumbles. 

“And to answer your question, yes. If you want to be with Hui when we go back to the present, you have to make him fall in love with you now,” Yanan confirms. Shinwon sighs. 

“What do I do about the fact I just made myself look like a fucking creep in front of him, Fake Yanan?” Shinwon asks. Yanan shrugs. 

“That’s your problem. I’m just here to use a little magic to fix anything you fuck up in other people’s lives,” Yanan informs him. 

“Wouldn’t stealing someone else’s future boyfriend be fucking up their lives, genius?” Shinwon asks, narrowing his eyes. 

“Do you want me to read you the fucking handbook on what I can fix and what I can’t? It’s really goddamn long and boring,” Yanan snaps. “I swear, you humans are always so ungrateful—”

“And why the _fuck_ are you Yanan?” Shinwon asks. Fake Yanan pauses, then turns to look at himself in the mirror above Hongseok’s desk. 

“You know, I usually pick a mentor-type, like a parent or a teacher,” he explains. “But I saw this guy, and, _man_, I wanted to take his form for a spin. Tall, handsome, a little dumb but that’s okay...”

“Alright, I’m back to not thinking this is real,” Shinwon declares. 

“Listen, if you were four feet tall and shaped like the Pillsbury Doughboy back home, wouldn’t you want to be Yanan just once?” he asks. Shinwon pauses for a minute, then cocks his head to the side with a little nod. 

“Mm. You know what? There are weirder things about this,” Shinwon decides. “Where’s real Yanan?”

“His soul’s on pause until we’re done here,” he says simply. 

“You killed Yanan. Cool,” Shinwon concludes. After, he thinks he should hold back on the sarcasm when interacting with the magical being who was currently in charge of his life. 

“I would never kill Yanan. I love him,” Fake Yanan declares, gently touching his reflection in the mirror. 

“Would you believe this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Yanan do this?” Shinwon asks.

“I don’t blame him.”

Shinwon sighs, rubbing his eyes softly as he tried to decide on a plan of action. He couldn’t exactly just do what he did before now that Hui thought he was a weirdo. 

“Can I give you an itsy-bitsy hint?” Yanan asks, batting his eyelashes and knitting his hands together. “I’m rooting for you, you know. When we were all watching you and Hui argue, I kept hoping you would make up. And not just because, if you had, I would have gotten this weekend off.”

“Sure,” Shinwon agrees. At this point, the Yanan otherkin was his only ally. 

“You have his life’s work in your backpack,” Yanan states. “Return it. Apologize. Have an excuse.”

“Right,” Shinwon confirms. “But what excuse could possibly be good enough to make him stop thinking I’m a freak?”

“Convince him it was a joke somehow,” he suggests. 

Shinwon nods, biting his lip in thought. His mind went right back to high school, when popular kids had bullied nerdy ones by asking them out and then claiming it was a prank. It was juvenile and embarrassing, though. Plus, Shinwon and Hui didn’t even know each other. How would he explain how he knew about his band or where he’d be? Shinwon has to find a way to place the blame on someone else, or Hui will still think he’s creepy. 

After a couple of minutes of deep consideration, he knows the only person who would ever agree to something like that, and he knew just where to find him. 

“I’ve got to go talk to someone. You should go hang out in Yanan’s room or something,” Shinwon suggests. “If Hongseok gets home and you’re here, he‘ll ask a lot of questions. He tends to be annoying like that.”

“Right,” Fake Yanan confirms. “Can I take that book, though? Human literature is so fascinating.”

“It’s not really literat— You know what? Yeah. Take it. And grab the one on the shelf next to where you found it. It’s the sequel,” Shinwon instructs. Yanan nods, grabbing the book off the bed and the second volume off Hongseok’s miniature bookshelf. 

The two go their separate ways, and Shinwon heads straight for the Performing Arts building. 

When he gets there, he climbs up to the third floor and keeps walking until he reaches a seating area toward the back of the building. See, Shinwon hadn’t come here in search of a theatre major. He’d come in search of a man who, despite skipping half his classes, felt a day was more productive if he left his dorm to nap in public instead of staying in bed like a normal person. As he’d told Shinwon a million times, the theatre kids had the best couches. 

Sure enough, Shinwon finds Jung Wooseok, acclaimed slacker, drummer of Hui’s band and Shinwon’s future best friend, curled up on a couch in the corner of the building. 

“Hey!” Shinwon exclaims, raising his voice to make sure he woke Wooseok up. Wooseok jumped, pressing his hand against his heart in surprise. 

“Jesus! There are nice ways to wake someone, you know!” Wooseok cries, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt off his head as he stared up at Shinwon. 

“Sorry! I thought I was being gentle,” Shinwon lied. Wooseok was a heavy sleeper. Anything below a yell would just make him stir a little. 

“It’s okay,” he grumbles, fidgeting with the bracelet around his wrist as he talked. 

“I’m Shinwon,” he says. A part of him gets a little sentimental; he and Wooseok had been friends so long now, he couldn’t really remember when Hui had actually introduced them. He’d probably never forget this. 

“Wooseok,” he replies gently. 

“Look, this is going to sound really weird, but I need a favor,” Shinwon requests. Wooseok just squints at him, but Shinwon continues on. He didn’t have any other ideas, so he was going to have to rely on their inherent connection as best friends across space and time. “You’re friends with Hui, right?”

“I— yeah,” Wooseok affirms. Shinwon thinks it’s a good sign he was even humoring him. 

“I met him officially today, and I kinda acted like a weirdo,” Shinwon explains. 

“So, what? You want me to tell him you’re not?” Wooseok asks. 

“I want to tell him it was a prank,” Shinwon admits. “And I need someone to say put me up to it.” 

“A prank?”

“I— I brought up your gig tonight to him, and he thought it was weird I knew about it—”

“Ah, you want it to look like I told you so he doesn’t think you’re a stalker,” Wooseok concludes. “Even though you are a stalker.”

“I’m not a stalker!” Shinwon insists. 

“You literally stalked me,” Wooseok points out. Shinwon sighs, and for a second he thinks he and Wooseok’s best friend connection wasn’t as strong as he imagined. But only for a second. “What’s your story? Saw him at some other gig and thought he was cute?”

“Something like that,” Shinwon agrees. It was easier than the truth, and Shinwon didn’t even know if he was allowed to tell the truth. Probably not. “I was just nervous. All I want is another shot.” 

“Fine,” Wooseok agrees. “But if you do anything else weird, I’m telling him about this.”

“That’s completely fair, and I respect you,” Shinwon offers with an aggressive nod. Wooseok laughs, then checks his phone and immediately pulls his hood back over his head. 

“Dude, it was nice to meet you, I guess, but I still have half an hour until class, and I want my nap,” Wooseok says. Shinwon takes the hint with another nod. “See you tonight for your redemption arc?”

“See you tonight,” Shinwon confirms. 

After departing Wooseok’s napping lounge, Shinwon heads to class. If this was really the past, he should probably be concerned about his GPA. 

Upon the conclusion of his last class of the day, Shinwon heads back to his dorm to wait until it’s time to go see Hui. 

“Hey!” Hongseok exclaims when Shinwon arrives home. “Do you know where my books went?” 

“Oh, Yanan came over and asked to borrow them,” Shinwon says. Hongseok just stares at him blankly. Shinwon quickly realizes the real Yanan would never touch a comic book. “He’s writing a paper on nerd culture.” 

“He’s such a dick,” Hongseok complains. “Whatever. What are you doing tonight? Bronson Hall is having an All Around The World party.”

“I’m going to go see a band,” Shinwon informs him. Hongseok looks taken aback. Shinwon hadn’t really thought about how much time he and Hongseok spent together before he met Hui. They were still friends afterwards, of course, and they even stayed in touch in the present. Before Hui, though, they’d spent virtually every Friday and Saturday night together. 

“Who?” Hongseok asks. 

“Emerald. They’re local,” Shinwon explains.

“You’re going to watch a garage band play?” Hongseok says, scrunching up his face in disbelief. 

“They’re not _that_ irrelevant. It’s at a real venue, just a small one,” Shinwon insists. “Their music is decent. If you want to come, you totally can.”

“Decent? Why are you going to see a band who you only think is decent?” Hongseok asks. 

Shinwon could remember Hongseok asking him the same question the first time around. He opts for the same answer. 

“Their guitarist is hot.”

“Oh, word,” Hongseok says, instantly backing down. “I’m gonna go to the party, then. You hate it when I wing man.”

“You’re bad at it!” Shinwon snaps, though he could hardly remember what Hongseok had done to make Shinwon think that in the first place. 

“I’m sorry!” Hongseok laughs. “You should bring someone else, though. Concerts are lame alone.”

“I’m actually gonna take Yanan with me, I think,” Shinwon decides with a little smile. Maybe it would be good for Fake Yanan to get off desk duty. 

“Perfect!” Hongseok enthuses. 

The pair hang out for a little while, though for Hongseok and Shinwon that meant laying on their respective beds and scrolling through their phones. They occasionally made conversation when something came to mind, but they’d gotten to a level of comfort where silence wasn’t so bad. 

At around six, Shinwon gets dressed and heads down to Yanan’s dorm. He made sure to grab Hui’s song book and shove it into his bag before leaving.

When Yanan answers the door, he looks disheveled. 

“Hey. I’m going to Hui’s gig. Come with me,” Shinwon orders. Fake Yanan yawns, running his hands through his hair. 

“Okay, um...,” he trails off, clearly having trouble focusing. “Sorry. I just discovered _naps_ through that Wooseok fellow. He’s onto something.”

“Do travel guides not sleep?” Shinwon asks. Yanan shakes his head. 

“Don’t need it. We’re basically spirits,” he explains. “Let me put my foot padding on.”

“Shoes,” Shinwon corrects him. 

“Right,” Yanan confirms. 

The two leave their dorm and walk down to the far side of campus. About a block off from there, there was a section of the city with a bunch of bars. Emerald were playing at Hopps, a small venue with an open space, stage and bar. Shinwon had spent a lot of time watching Emerald and other local artists Hui liked there, but chronologically, this was the first time he’d ever been. 

After years of drinking legally, Shinwon is a little offended when the bouncer out front draws two black Xs on the back of his hands. Yanan gets the same, and the two head inside. 

To Shinwon’s dismay, Hui is already on the stage, setting up their instruments before they go on. There weren’t enough people inside of Hopps yet for Hui not to see him, either. Shinwon had planned to talk to him when he was still riding the rush he got after performing, but that didn’t seem to be an option if he wanted any shot of salvaging this. 

“You stay here,” Shinwon orders to Yanan, who had become fascinated with a neon sign hanging on one of the walls. Yanan nods, reaching out to touch one of the letters. Shinwon just rolls his eyes. 

He makes his way over to the stage, right up to Hui, who was attempting to tune his guitar. Hui scoffs when he sees him. 

“Who thought you’d be this bold!” he enthuses. “I almost admire it.”

“I’m really sorry about this morning,” Shinwon says. Hui nods half-heartedly, focusing back down on his strings. “It was a really bad joke, I know.” 

“Joke?”

“Oh, Wooseok didn’t tell you?” Shinwon asks. The major plus side to talking to Hui in the past? He hadn’t caught on to every single indicator Shinwon was lying yet. “He asked me to do it. He thought it would be funny and you would get some inspiration from it.“

“I should’ve known,” Hui murmurs. “Wooseok always does stuff like that. Why does he think he can just _make_ me finish the song? I would finish it if I could!”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. We were just trying to help,” Shinwon says with a pout. “I’m sure whenever you get real inspiration for the song, it’ll be great.”

“Thanks,” Hui whispers. “I’m Hui, by the way. I’m sure he told you that, but... well, you know. Shinwon, right?” 

“Yeah,” Shinwon says with a soft smile. They lock eyes for a minute, then Hui looks back down. Shinwon considers this good progress. “Oh! I almost forgot.”

He reaches into his bag and pulls out Hui’s songbook, then reaches up and hands it to him. 

“You forgot it this morning,” Shinwon explains. 

“Oh my god, thank you,” Hui groans. “You didn’t read it, did you?”

“No,” Shinwon assures him. It was a half-truth. He’d never actually gotten a chance to look inside, but Shinwon had heard every song in there at some point, even the really embarrassing ones he wrote in high school and had never played for the rest of the band. 

“Good. Some of these are better off unheard,” Hui alleges. Shinwon nods, but he didn’t believe it. He always loved to hear Hui sing and play, no matter the lyrics. Hui’s rendition of _Baby Shark_ would probably be angelic to Shinwon. “Um, I’ll talk to you after the show, okay?”

“Okay. Good luck,” Shinwon offers. Hui smiles at him, then puts down his guitar and heads back stage. Shinwon sighs in relief and returns over to Yanan. 

“Alright. We can go home now,” Shinwon says. Yanan furrows his eyebrows. 

“I didn’t get word from Them,” Yanan tells him. “We stay until They tell me to leave.” 

“But I fixed it,” Shinwon explains. “He accepted my apology. He wants to talk after the show. Everything’s back on track. Hui plus Shinwon forever is on.”

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unless I’m told otherwise, Hui isn’t falling in love with you,” Yanan says simply. “Trust me when I say that They know.” 

“So what am I supposed to do? This is all it took last time,” Shinwon complains. 

“Last time you had the love at first sight buff,” Yanan explains. 

“What?”

“Last time, he turned around with his coffee, and you two made eye contact. That’s when you knew, right?” Yanan hypothesizes. Shinwon nods. “Hui, too. That’s all it took. This time, you were being a big baby, and you didn’t look at him the same way. Didn’t work. He’s not falling in love with you. He doesn’t even want to date you. Right now, he’s contemplating if you’re hot enough to be as crazy as you are.”

“First of all, I wasn’t being a baby,” Shinwon snaps. “Second of all, what am I supposed to do, then?”

“How many times do I have to tell you fixing this is not my job?” Yanan asks. “And, by the way, this whole event is going to be _pointless_ if you are both choosing Hui and refusing to admit you’re wrong.”

“Just because I still value a relationship I’ve been in for a third of my lifetime and do not want it _erased from existence_ does not mean I have to be the one that’s wrong,” Shinwon decides. 

“So, your stance is that Hui’s wrong for wanting to marry someone he’s been in a relationship with for a third of _his_ lifetime?” Yanan ponders. Shinwon scowls. “Look, all I’m saying is that if you’re so fundamentally different that you fight over every milestone in your relationship, maybe you should explore other options. That’s why They gave you this opportunity.”

“We’re not fundamentally different,” Shinwon claims. “We’re actually really similar.”

“I’ve watched your fights, Shinwon,” Yanan states. “You ever notice how you’re the one who makes them fights?”

“No, I’m not,” Shinwon insists. “He’s the one who likes to argue.”

“He’s not,” Yanan says confidently. “He tries to have conversations with you about why he’s unhappy, and you immediately get defensive every time without fail.”

“They’re not just conversations—”

“They are,” Yanan decides. “He wants to talk things through. You usually start yelling before he even gets there.” 

“He just wants it his way—”

“If his way is so bad, why do you always agree to it after you finally listen to him? And why do you get so mad after you agree when you’re the one who decided to do so instead of just breaking up with him?” Yanan asks. Shinwon sighs. He supposed he was thankful he and Hui had taken all the steps they had so far. Shinwon wanted to avoid labels, but he’d readily embraced being Hui’s boyfriend. He didn’t want his mom to know about their relationship, but now every holiday was actually bearable. He didn’t want to move in together, but he realized how lonely he’d been almost as soon as Hui had gotten settled in. Still, this time it was different. 

“Marriage isn’t like everything else. It’s the most outdated, archaic thing I’ve ever heard,” Shinwon says, glancing back toward the stage. None of them had come back out yet, but the place was filling out pretty decently. 

“You’re obtuse, so I’m going to spell this out for you,” Yanan says, crossing his arms. “Hui wants to get married because he wants you to buy a house together and have kids, which is what he is implying when he keeps talking about having a life _together_. He thinks marriage is logical if he wants to do those things because marriage makes both more simple, and he doesn’t see a downside because he was operating under the assumption you were going to be together forever. He doesn’t care about a stupid wedding, you dumb fuck.”

Shinwon feels like his entire world is coming crashing down, as though he hadn’t spent the entire day plotting to manipulate a younger version of his boyfriend into falling in love with him. 

“That’s not true. I think I know Hui better than you do,” Shinwon decides. He wasn’t going to let someone who needed Shinwon to tie his shoes for him push him around. 

“Really? Because I’m literally omnipresent,” Yanan snaps. “Look, I don’t really care what you do or if you believe me. I just think you should consider if you want those things before you walk right back into the same arguments in the present.”

Shinwon swallowed hard. It didn’t matter what he wanted or what Hui wanted for themselves in the future. The only person he wanted to fall in love with him was Hui. Even if he got back to the present and they were broken up, his decision was the same.

“Let’s just drop this for now,” Shinwon suggests. Yanan shrugs, clearly not one to bother with Shinwon’s nonsense. “They should be going on soon. Is this your first time at a live music show?”

Yanan nods. 

“We should go to the front!” Shinwon decides, taking Yanan by the hand and dragging him back up toward the stage. 

The show itself is just as fun as Shinwon remembered. He and Hui’s music taste overlapped a lot, so even the songs that weren’t objectively great had parts he really liked. Plus, this was back when the band had only consisted of Hui, Wooseok, Jinho and Kino, which evoked a sort of nostalgia in Shinwon. 

Originally, Jinho played rhythm guitar, while Kino had been forced onto bass. At some point, the entire band had gotten into a big fight because Jinho had come out and said what everybody was thinking: Kino was a horrible bassist. Once the issue was resolved, they moved Kino onto keyboard and had recruited Yuto to play bass. After that, everything had started to come together for them. As a result, Kino playing bass was something Shinwon associated closely with the beginning of he and Hui’s relationship when Hui was still struggling to find the band’s direction and came to Shinwon constantly for his opinion. Now, Hui only played Shinwon songs after they were finished. 

Yanan has the time of what Shinwon can only assume is his life cheering and dancing. He was so over the top it almost embarrassed Shinwon, who _invented_ being over the top at Emerald shows. Shinwon knows the real Yanan would die on the spot if he ever found out about this, so he hopes it never comes up. 

After the show ends, most of the concert goers exit the venue to go drink in one of the neighboring bars, but Shinwon forced Yanan to wait around for Hui to come out, even once the house lights go up. When Hui and the rest of the guys finally come back out, he has a big grin on his face. 

“Hey!” Hui sings, sitting on the edge of the stage so he and Shinwon are closer to eye level. Wooseok raises his eyebrows at Shinwon, who returns with a silent nod of thanks. Wooseok rolls his eyes playfully, then starts to pack up his drum set. “How’d you like the show?”

“You guys are really good,” Shinwon says. Hui beams, clearly proud of himself. 

“Your friend seemed to like it, too,” Hui points out, gesturing to Yanan. 

“Oh, yeah,” Shinwon confirms. “This is Yanan. Sorry about him. We pregamed a little since...”

He flashes Hui the back one of his hands. Hui laughs, turning his own hands over to reveal the same Xs Shinwon and Yanan shared. 

“Once we get everything loaded into the van, we’re going to head to Jinho’s to chill for a while. You guys can come if you want!” Hui offers. Shinwon nods enthusiastically. “Good.”

“Hui, if you don’t pick up an amp...,” Jinho threatens from a few feet away. Hui laughs, pulling himself up off the stage and joining the rest of the band in gathering their stuff. 

Shinwon, perhaps on reflex more than anything, crawls up and starts to help unplug and pack up Hui’s things. Shinwon smiles to himself when he notices Hui is using his homemade pedal board. He’d upgraded to a fancy one once they’d graduated, but before that, he’d mounted his pedals onto a piece of wood he’d spray painted black and hooked a power supply to the underside. 

The homemade board also came with a homemade case: a piece of floral luggage he’d stolen from his mom. Shinwon wanders to the side of the stage and retrieves it from behind the curtain, then unhooks everything and carefully placed the board and pedals inside. He throws the cables on top, then zips the suitcase and stands it up so it can be taken to the van. Just as he pulls the handle out to roll the bag away, he notices Hui looking at him like he’s crazy. 

“How did you know that’s how I store that?” Hui asks. Shinwon stops dead in his tracks. He was an idiot sometimes. 

“Just a hunch. Everything else seems to have a real case,” Shinwon points out. He’s thankful when Hui just nods. 

“Well, thanks,” he says, then reaches out his hand to take the suitcase himself. His thumb brushes against Shinwon’s briefly, and Hui’s cheeks immediately flush. “I- I’m going to take this to- the car.”

Shinwon mumbles a tiny affirmation, and Hui scurries off as quickly as he can. Shinwon looks up and makes eye contact with Yanan, who was still standing on the floor. He offers Shinwon a little thumbs up. 

The group quickly finishes packing up, then they head out to the parking lot to Jinho’s van. Wooseok volunteers to crawl into the back with the equipment, while Kino sits up front with Jinho. This leaves Shinwon crammed in between Hui and Fake Yanan in the backseat. 

“So, how did you two meet?” Hui asks, wiggling a finger back and forth between Wooseok and Shinwon. Wooseok looks at Shinwon, as though he was telling him that lying to Hui’s face was his problem. 

“In class,” Shinwon says. It was staring to worry to him how easy he could lie to Hui. “We’re both back row lurkers.”

“Back row is the only row,” Wooseok agrees. Shinwon thinks it helps this was Wooseok’s actual philosophy. He probably would’ve dropped out of college altogether if he thought he could get away with it without being uninvited from family holidays by his mother. 

“Imagine how much better your grades would be if you sat on a row where you can actually hear the professor,” Kino taunts. Kino was the most upright of the group; Hui was rebellious by nature, Jinho struggled to engage himself in academics and Wooseok was just lazy. Kino picked a practical major, got good grades and followed the rules. 

“My grades would be the same because I still wouldn’t be listening to the professor,” Wooseok admits. Kino sighs. 

“I wish you guys cared more about your futures,” he complains. 

“_This_ is my future,” Jinho announces proudly. Wooseok agrees, but Shinwon doesn’t hear a peep out of Hui. He steals a glance at him, and is a little disappointed to see Hui is just gnawing furiously at his lip. 

“I wish,” Kino replies with a sigh. 

“Whenever we sign a record deal, Kino gets none of the money, in my opinion!” Wooseok announces. 

“Kino would skip the record deal signing for a midterm anyway,” Jinho theorizes with a laugh. 

“I would ask if I could take the midterm early,” Kino corrects him. “Always be prepared.”

“You are seriously annoying,” Jinho says, reaching a hand across the median to shove Kino. Kino laughs, hitting his hands away. 

Shinwon grins the entire way to Jinho’s. He missed when everybody was together. The older they got, the less time they had for each other. Daily hangouts turned into weekly, and weekly turned into monthly. Monthly lasted a while, but even that was hard to manage now. He certainly couldn’t remember the last time they’d all piled into a van. 

When they reach their destination, everyone exits the vehicle slowly, like it’s a clown car. Wooseok, the klutz he is, needs Kino to hold his hand to even be able to get out of the backseat without crushing one of his own drums. 

Jinho leads everyone into his place, explaining to Yanan and Shinwon how ditching the dorms was the best decision he ever made. He lived in a one-bedroom house a couple of blocks off campus by himself, and, instead of living in said bedroom, he’d turned it into a recording studio and set his bed up in the living room. When he was in college, Shinwon thought it was the single coolest thing he’d ever heard. Looking at it now, he wondered how Jinho’s mom didn’t reach through the phone and knock some sense into him. 

Even so, the layout for the house made for a pretty decent gathering. Kino and Wooseok sat together on Jinho’s bed, while Jinho and Yanan, who had become enthralled with human habitation culture, discussed the housing market on the couch. This left Shinwon to sit on the floor against the wall on the side of the room, as Hui had disappeared into the kitchen as soon as he arrived. He could’ve squeezed in with Jinho and Yanan, but he was hoping Hui would sit next to him. 

After a few minutes, Hui returns and distributes snacks and drinks to everyone. Shinwon wants to ask him why he’s doing this instead of Jinho, but he doesn’t bother. Hui was the easiest person in the world to convince to do you a favor. 

When he gets to Shinwon, he pauses. 

“I made you something special,” he states. Shinwon narrows his eyes. Hui prances back into the kitchen, then returns with a bowl of popcorn. “For you.”

“Why?” Shinwon asks with a laugh, though he accepts. He loved popcorn; he wasn’t sure how Hui knew that, though. 

“I Twitter stalked you after you acted weird this morning, and your last tweet was about craving popcorn,” Hui confesses bravely. “I’m delivering for you.”

“Thanks,” Shinwon laughs, making a show of shoving a couple of pieces into his mouth. He’d tweeted that so long ago in his own time. He had no recollection of ever posting it, but he certainly did like the idea Hui had been captivated enough by him to internet stalk him. 

Hui nods, then walks over to Kino and Wooseok and flings his body across them. Wooseok screams, but Kino just wiggles around until Hui fits on the bed with them. 

Everyone continues to talk and drink and laugh for a while. Shinwon didn’t really feel like he belonged there, though. It was fun at first, but it wasn’t the kind of thing he did for fun anymore. Plus, after his third drink, Yanan whispers to Shinwon about how he can’t handle human inebriation practices and sees himself out. Shinwon thought to go with him, but whenever he made it outside, Yanan was already gone. 

Shinwon is about ready to bail when he sees Hui walking his way. 

“So,” Hui says, sitting across from Shinwon. He propped up one of his knees and rested his arm on top it, still looking Shinwon right in the eyes. “I have a theory.”

“Okay,” Shinwon begins, tossing a piece of popcorn nonchalantly in his mouth. “I’m listening.”

“I think you and Wooseok weren’t playing a prank,” Hui announces. Shinwon’s face goes hot. He had hoped this would be some other Shinwon’s problem, perhaps the version of him who usually resided in this timeline. “I think you were trying to set us up.” 

The feeling of relief crashes in over him. He was glad this was something he could lie his way out of. Shinwon certainly thrived in a land where Hui didn’t notice the way he curled his fingers into his palm when he was making something up as he went along. 

“You think I’m so desperate I conspired with Wooseok to date his random friend?”

“I think Wooseok wants me to write a love song,” Hui informs him, “and he knows you’re my type.”

“I’m your type?” Shinwon asks with a grin. He knew it. He’d seen all the boys Hui had ever dated. He’d heard Hui say it before. It still boosted his ego. 

“Undeniably,” Hui confirms, “so admit your evil plan.”

“I would love to,” Shinwon says, “but we’re not that devious. Wooseok just thought if you had a bad experience like that it would get your creativity flowing.”

Hui narrows his eyes. 

“I don’t believe you. You _said_ it wasn’t going right,” Hui points out. 

“You can believe what you want,” Shinwon tells him simply. Hui groans. 

“You’re trying to trick me,” Hui decides. Shinwon shrugs. 

“Are you inspired to write a song about me yet?” 

“Not yet,” Hui snips. He looked miserable. Shinwon’s protective instincts take over in a second. 

“Maybe you don’t need to write what you know,” Shinwon suggests. “You could watch a movie and write from a character’s perspective.”

“You’re trying to take me on a movie date now,” Hui decides. Shinwon pulls a leg out from under him to kick Hui, who just laughs. 

“I never said I wanted to be there! I’m just trying to be helpful,” Shinwon insists. 

“Sure,” Hui says sarcastically. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I swear my songs are only good when I write things I actually feel.”

“You should be more grateful I tried to ask you on a date, then,” Shinwon teases. 

“So you admit it!”

“I was joking!” Shinwon laughs. Hui rolls his eyes dramatically. “Maybe it shouldn’t be about romance then. Write about friendship. Write about Wooseok.”

“Yeah, because when I think of poetry, I think of Jung Wooseok,” Hui remarks with an eye roll for good measure. 

“You’re really not working with me here!” Shinwon complains. 

“Because it feels like some sort of game,” Hui admits.

“Am I winning?” Shinwon asks, batting his eyelashes.

“Stop that!” Hui laughs.

“You’re too easy,” Shinwon mumbles. That’s part of why he’d liked Hui in the first place; he had a big reaction to everything. If you were like Shinwon and you thrived on attention, Hui was the best person to get it from. Even effortless jokes and teasing got a rise out of Hui.

“I’m going to write about how annoying you are,” Hui announces.

“I would love that!” Shinwon enthuses.

“The chorus is just going to be me singing at you to shut the fuck up,” Hui warns.

“Can you include my name?” Shinwon requests.

“Definitely,” he agrees.

Hui just smiles at Shinwon for a moment, then leans over and steals a handful of his popcorn. Shinwon tries to stop him, but this only makes Hui motivated to take even more.

“Just let me have some!” Hui whines after a minute of Shinwon hugging his bowl against his chest and twisting around to avoid him. Shinwon scoffs, offering the bowl. Hui accepts it happily.

“You know, a song about someone you hate is actually a pretty decent idea,” Shinwon says after a minute of watching Hui eat the rest of his popcorn. “Haven’t you heard _Gives You Hell_?”

“You really do just want me to write a song about you,” Hui concludes.

“No,” Shinwon denies. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

“I don’t,” Hui assures him.

“Huuuuuuuui,” Kino calls, interrupting the sound of Shinwon’s heart pounding in his ears. “Hui, I need you to explain _Naruto_ to me.”

“_I’m_ explaining _Naruto_ to you,” Wooseok says, shaking Kino’s shoulder.

“You keep using nerd words,” Kino claims. “I don’t know what a Waifu is, Wooseok.”

“I told you—”

“I didn’t say I wanted to know!”

The conversation devolves into a full blown discussion among _all_ of them about what the plot of _Naruto_ actually is, and Shinwon suspects Wooseok is the only one of them who has ever actually watched it. He liked watching them all talk, but he mostly just wanted to be able to have Hui’s attention again. He had a goal, and this time-defying vacation was growing old.

The group ends up watching two entire episodes of the show, all while Kino complains about how he doesn’t understand. When Wooseok goes to start a third one, Shinwon sees his opportunity to leave. He says goodbye and heads for the door, only for Hui to corner him in the foyer as he puts on his shoes.

“Um,” he grumbles, looking down at the wood floors to avoid Shinwon’s eyes.

“Um,” Shinwon mocks back at him.

“Do you want to maybe trade numbers?” Hui asks. “Y-you know, so I can play the song for you when I finish it.”

Shinwon nods, and Hui readily hands his phone to Shinwon. Shinwon does the same, and he has, for the second time in his life, secured Hui’s number.

Shinwon floats all the way home. He didn’t know how he could be so excited to receive attention from someone who he had spent majority of his time with over the past years, but he couldn’t stop replaying his conversation with Hui over and over. He felt the same way he did the first time. He couldn’t believe Fake Yanan’s bosses had ever thought he would ever choose anybody but Hui when they sent him back to _this_ time period.

He’s giddily climbing the stairs up to his dorm room, thinking about he and Hui’s first kiss and other unmentionable, pathetically cute moments in their relationship, when he hears Yanan’s voice call his name. He keeps walking.

“Hey, you,” Yanan barks, speed-walking to catch up with Shinwon. Shinwon holds back an eye roll. What could he have done now?

“Are you still wasted?” Shinwon asks flippantly. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen alcohol tolerance quite that bad—”

“They reset my form for me, but that doesn’t matter right now. I have a bone to pick with you,” Yanan announces. 

“Where’d you learn that phrase? _Full House_ reruns?” Shinwon quips. Yanan narrows his eyes. 

“Don’t try to distract me,” Yanan states plainly. “You’ve got to stop trying to convince Hui to finish that song.” 

“Why? He finishes it eventually,” Shinwon reminds him, halting his walk back to his dorm and crossing his arms. 

“Not in this timeline he doesn’t,” Yanan declares. “Tell me, Shinwon, what’s it called?” 

“_Cafe_,” Shinwon replies simply. Yanan just stares at him until he understands. 

Shinwon’s eyes widen at the realization. It hadn’t really occurred to him it was hard for Hui to write a song about an encounter that hadn’t happened. _Cafe_ was _supposed_ to be about meeting Shinwon at Brewster’s. Now, Hui’s memories of meeting Shinwon weren’t exactly love song worthy. He felt all sorts of guilt. Hui loved that song, probably more than he loved Shinwon. They’d played it at nearly every show since Hui wrote it. 

“So, what? Hui can’t ever finish his favorite song because I didn’t look at him right?” Shinwon asks. Yanan shrugs. 

“I don’t make the rules. They do, and They say Hui doesn’t finish the song,” Yanan informs him. Shinwon bites down on the inside of his lip.

“What if I just give him something else to write about?” Shinwon suggests. “They won’t stop him from finishing the song if he’s inspired to, right?”

“I guess not,” Yanan assumes. “You already tried that though. Wooseok, a movie, someone he hates... He still isn’t writing.” 

Shinwon just shakes his head, then pulls out his phone and sends a text to Hui. 

_do u have plans tmrw nite_

“What are you doing?” Yanan asks. 

“Speeding my plan up,” Shinwon responds. In _Cafe_, Hui wrote about a whirlwind love. From now on, Shinwon had to give him one. 

His phone lights up with a new text. 

_Yeah!_

Shinwon’s heart sinks. Then, his phone beeps again. 

_With you :)_

“Looks like you’re right on track,” Yanan evaluates with a click of his tongue. Shinwon nods. 

“I am going to get Hui to fall in love with me sooner rather than later,” Shinwon decides. Yanan claps his hands together. 

“I look forward to it,” he enthuses. “I want to go home, too, you know.” 

They reach Yanan’s dorm, and he stops and digs in his pocket for the key. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to get Yanan his beauty sleep,” he says proudly as he unlocks the door. 

“Can you at least say _my_ whenever you’re wearing Yanan’s skin or whatever it is you’re doing right now?” Shinwon begs. Fake Yanan shakes his head. 

“That would be an insult to Yanan. You may see me as Yanan, but I never could,” he explains. Shinwon just rolls his eyes. 

“Goodnight, creepy Yanan,” Shinwon says, then continues on his way to his dorm. 

When he enters, Hongseok is already fast asleep. Shinwon starts to get ready for bed, but, as he stands at his mirror, it occurs to him that, if this is all a dream, he’s going to wake up soon. For a minute, he’s sad. He liked experiencing this all again. He liked seeing Hui so happy and hopeful. Then, he realizes he wanted to get back to reality anyway. He and Hui had a lot of fights. They’d make up like they always did. He didn’t want to relive college any longer. So, Shinwon crawls into bed, ready to put this all behind him. 

To Shinwon’s horror, he awakes the next morning still in his dorm. He feels like his soul’s been crushed. That was his last bit of hope all of this had just been a demented trick his wacky brain was playing on him. Instead, he was stuck facing that perhaps there was a weird love spirit inhabiting Yanan’s body, and if he didn’t find a way to make Hui fall in love with him again, their entire relationship would disappear. 

As it’s a Saturday morning, Hongseok gets up early to go running, which is a bit of a relief to Shinwon. He wasn’t great at making casual conversation with anybody in this time period. Everybody kept talking about classes and professors, and he couldn’t even remember what classes he was enrolled in. He hoped whatever version of him was stuck taking his exams was good at studying. 

The day goes by slower than Shinwon can possibly imagine. Usually, a Saturday would be spent dragging Hui around all day. They’d go to the mall or to see a movie. They’d go to an amusement park or to the aquarium. Shinwon liked to go out, since the time they spent together during the week mainly involved demolishing their Netflix queue. 

Instead, Shinwon sits in his bed, scrolling endlessly through every social media website he can figure out the login to. For the first time in years, Facebook was actually interesting. Remember when your aunt was pregnant with your cousin? Now Shinwon could. Remember when that girl from high school got married to her _first_ husband? Shinwon didn’t even remember he existed. A part of him is a little regretful he didn’t memorize any lottery numbers to leave his past self once this little excursion is over. 

At around six, Shinwon finally receives a text from Hui. 

_Are we still on for tonight?_

Shinwon narrowed his eyes. It was a little late to be asking that. 

_yes!_

_Can I meet you at your dorm in like an hour? I have something planned if that’s okay._

Shinwon quickly replies that that sounds great, then rolls out of bed. He needed to shower and make himself presentable before Hui arrived. 

One thing Shinwon realizes he takes for granted is sharing his bathroom with _one_ person. He’d never considered himself to be a neat person, but _man_ was he grossed out by the amount of crusty substances on the walls of the stall and hair clogging the drain. He’s happy to have even survived his shower. 

Once he’s clean, he stares at his closet for what feels like an eternity. He was sure he liked all these clothes at the time, but now, he wouldn’t be caught dead in most of them. Whenever he finds a normal wash pair of jeans without any type of unfortunate cut, he feels like he’s located a gem. He steals one of Hongseok’s t-shirts out of pure necessity to go with it. With these two items, he’s satisfied to have put together a look that didn’t burn his own retinas. 

By the time he’s finished getting dressed, he’s spent so long contemplating his outfit that it’s only a few minutes before he hears a knock at his door. 

“Hey,” Hui says gently. He was leaning against the door frame, and barely moved even after Shinwon opened the door. He had only his guitar case with him. 

“Hi,” Shinwon replies, raising his eyebrows at Hui expectantly. 

“Wanna go look at the stars?” Hui asks with a tiny smirk, pulling a key ring from his jacket pocket and twirling it around his finger. Shinwon laughs, reaching out for it and taking it from Hui for inspection. 

“Where did you get this?” Shinwon enthuses. 

“I stole it off of a maintenance guy’s cart,” Hui admits. Shinwon’s heart beats a little faster. Classic Hui. Past Hui. The kind of Hui he didn’t know anymore. “Let’s hope the tiny ‘R’ on this key stands for roof.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Shinwon asks. Hui shrugs. 

“We’ll walk to the quad together and brainstorm about what it actually unlocks on the way over,” he decides. Shinwon grins, quickly putting on his shoes and grabbing his phone before exiting his dorm and locking the door behind him. 

“After you,” Shinwon says happily.

As they walk, Hui gently reaches out and rests a hand against Shinwon’s elbow, slowly sliding his fingers around his arm. Shinwon held back a sigh. It was the easiest way to tell if Hui liked you or not. He always looked for someone to latch onto when he walked, to make him feel safe. Shinwon was his default choice, but he’d resort to Wooseok or Jinho if he wasn’t around. Shinwon had seen him do it to his own mom when they’d visited her. Apparently, that’s where he’d started. 

”You know, it’s kinda funny,” Hui begins as they climb the stairs to the top floor. “You and Wooseok are apparently close enough to conspire together, but he barely knows anything about you.”

“Oh, yeah. You know how it is with class friends,” Shinwon says with a shrug. Hui nods. 

“Maybe we’ll all be real friends now,” Hui decides. Shinwon feels a tiny little flutter inside of him, but that excitement is washed away by the realization this was _Hui_ telling him they _might_ be _friends_. 

They reach the very top of the staircase, which ends at a door marked with _Roof Access_. Hui takes out the key he’d _borrowed_ and slides it into the lock. Shinwon quietly thanks Them whenever it successfully opens the door. 

“Nice!” Hui sings, holding the door open long enough for both him and Shinwon to climb up. 

Hui finds a flat spot between the different levels of the roof and sets down his guitar case. He opens it and pulls out a blanket, then lays it down on the concrete for the two of them. 

“You came prepared,” Shinwon notes, sitting down on the blanket next to Hui. He stole a glance into Hui’s guitar case, and the sight of his songbook along with his guitar puts Shinwon at ease. Everything was coming together. 

“I did,” Hui agrees. 

“Are you gonna play me something?” Shinwon asks, gesturing to his guitar. Hui bit his lip. 

“Yeah, if you want me to,” Hui admits. “I’m not sure if it’ll be good though.”

“I will gladly be your test subject,” Shinwon assures him. Hui looks down at the blanket with a shy nod. 

“Can I be honest with you?” Hui asks. He looks to Shinwon for his approval. Shinwon almost forgets to agree he’s so concerned. “This whole songwriting drought has me thinking maybe I’m pouring too much into this whole music thing. What are the odds we ever even release an album?”

_100%._

“Don’t let this get you down. Everything you played yesterday was amazing. There has to be more where that came from,” Shinwon says, resting a hand on his knee. “The world deserves to hear the music you write, Hui.” 

“Thanks,” Hui grumbles, staring off into the stars and trees into the distance. Shinwon thinks he’s just avoiding eye contact. “I just think my parents would be happier if I put more time into something a little more realistic. Maybe I would be, too.” 

“But this is your dream,” Shinwon says softly. He realizes then that _that’s_ what changed about Hui. He stopped dreaming. He wasn’t the enthusiastic, otherworldly person he used to be. Maybe that’s how Hui saw growing up. Shinwon definitely didn’t. 

“If everybody could achieve them, they wouldn’t be dreams,” Hui says. Shinwon scowls. 

“You shouldn’t give up on something you love,” he encourages. 

As soon as the words leave Shinwon’s mouth, he knows what Fake Yanan would say. _Didn’t you give up on someone you love?_ He shoves the thought away. 

“So, what? We’re just supposed to keep making mediocre music in Jinho’s bedroom forever?” Hui asks. 

“Not forever. Until you get your big break and sign a record deal,” Shinwon explains with a smile. “It’s one song, Hui. It doesn’t change every other beautiful song you’ve written before.”

Hui bites his lip. 

“You really think we’re good?” 

“Yes,” Shinwon assures him. “Maybe you haven’t exactly found your footing yet, but there’s something there. You’ll figure it out. So don’t give up.”

“You sound so confident,” Hui says with a laugh. He gently rested his hand on top of Shinwon’s, carefully wrapping his fingers around his palm. “It makes me believe you.”

“Good!” Shinwon enthuses. He didn’t know if Hui would be the same person if he wasn’t writing and playing music all the time. Nothing made him happier than playing Shinwon a new song he was really excited about. He would yanmer on and on and on whenever Emerald would get together to play a gig. When he finally got to perform, he had the time of his life. Shinwon hated the idea of Hui changing his major and becoming an accountant or something mundane like that. 

Hui sighs, laying down on the blanket and staring up at the stars. Shinwon does the same, though he didn’t particularly like to just sit still and look at the sky.

“Do you actually know any constellations?” Shinwon asks. Hui wasn’t exactly the science type, even if that science was astronomy. 

“No,” Hui replies with a scoff. “I could probably locate the big dipper for you.”

“Why’d you bring me up here then?” Shinwon asks with a laugh. Hui shrugs, rolling over on his side so he can actually look at Shinwon. 

“It’s quiet. Your roommate isn’t here. I got the thrill of stealing something with limited monetary value,” Hui lists, propping his head up on his elbow so he can just look at Shinwon. Shinwon stares directly up at the sky. He couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Hui. 

“My roommate isn’t here, huh?” Shinwon asks with a swallow. Hui nods. 

“He’s a nice guy, I’m sure,” Hui offers. Shinwon laughs. “But I just want to get to know you.” 

“Woooow,” Shinwon teases. 

“And since Wooseok couldn’t really tell me anything about you, I’m having to resort to the old fashioned way,” Hui confesses. 

“What’s that? Playing twenty questions?” Shinwon asks with a tiny smirk. 

“I meant talking to you,” Hui says with an eye roll. “But I’m not opposed to that either.”

Shinwon holds out his hand. 

“Give me the key,” he orders. Hui furrows his eyebrows. 

“Why?” he asks. 

“Because if I’m going to play that game with you, I need reassurance you’re not going to ask me anything weird,” Shinwon explains. “Give me the key, so you know if you act like a freak I’ll lock you up here alone.”

Hui’s entire face turns into mismatched crescent moons as he laughs in response. Shinwon wants to melt. He didn’t think it was possible to have a smile as warm and genuine as Hui’s. 

“I’m not going to be weird!” Hui insists finally. 

“I literally met you yesterday. I can’t trust that,” Shinwon insists. Of course, he knew Hui wouldn’t do anything, but his only goal on this non-date was to make Hui laugh. If there was one thing he knew for sure about Hui, it was that the way to his heart was by understanding his sense of humor. Whether or not Hui laughed at someone’s jokes was the one thing he could always remember about them. 

“Fine,” Hui says, forking over the key ring. “It hurts a little you don’t trust me, though.”

“We’ll get there,” Shinwon promises. “You can start.”

“What’s your sign?” Hui asks, without missing a beat. Shinwon scoffs. 

“I’m a Sagittarius,” he replies, though he knows Hui won’t like it. According to Hui, a Virgo was meant to have one type of relationship with a Sagittarius: a non-existent one. 

“Ew,” Hui groans. “Fire sign.”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Shinwon complains. 

“That you’re annoying,” Hui deduces. Shinwon shoves him. “It’s okay. Every sign is annoying. I’m a Virgo.” 

“I like Virgos,” Shinwon announces. 

“Really?” Hui asks. Shinwon shrugs. 

“I don’t know what it means to be a Virgo, but I like you, so,” Shinwon explains. He gets a little satisfaction when Hui seems visibly flustered at his words. 

“Your turn,” Hui says, instead of acknowledging his timeless effort at flirting. 

“Do you have siblings?”

“An older brother,” Hui confirms. 

Shinwon wonders if the play moving forward is to keep asking questions he knows the answer to. He wanted to seem interested in Hui, but he already knew everything there was to know about him. Shinwon used to think it was boring to have lost all the mystery about their relationship, but the longer he was here, the more he valued having someone who understood him as deeply as Hui did.

“Do you get along?” Shinwon asks. Hui shakes his head. 

“We’re very different. I’ll leave it at that,” Hui says with a tiny smile. Shinwon had met Hui’s brother before, and he couldn’t exactly argue with what Hui was saying. They got closer as they got older, but in this timeline Hui’s fondest memories of his brother hadn’t happened yet. “What about you?”

“Older sister,” Shinwon replies. He starts to fantasize about all the times his sister and Hui had absolutely _clowned_ him together, and he can’t help but mention it. “She’s cool. You two would get along.” 

“You barely know me,” Hui says with a laugh. Shinwon shrugs. 

“I can tell,” he insists. 

“If you’re sure.”

“I am. And it’s your turn,” Shinwon reminds him. Hui sighs. 

“Favorite band?”

“The Killers,” Shinwon replies. 

“Hmm. I mean, they’re not The Strokes or anything, but I respect it,” Hui acknowledges. Shinwon is just glad he doesn’t go on a rant about Julian Casablancas. “Can I go again?”

Shinwon nods. 

“What’s your favorite song?” Hui asks. Shinwon pauses for a moment. His actual favorite song when he was in college was probably _When You Were Young_, but he didn’t feel that way anymore. 

“_Everything Will Be Alright_,” he decides, mostly because it reminds him of Hui. The more time he spent with past Hui, the more he missed _his_ Hui. If They were trying to teach him a lesson, he’d certainly learned it. Shinwon just wanted to go home. 

“Obscure!” Hui sings. Shinwon shrugs. “Mine’s _Hard To Explain_, which is probably not the right thing to admit to someone you just met.” 

“On lyrics alone, maybe not,” Shinwon laughs. 

“I don’t know. Some of it makes sense to me,” Hui admits. “Like, obviously not all of it, but don’t you ever feel like you’re talking but nothing you say is being interpreted the way you want it to be?”

Shinwon thinks back to what Yanan said about how he’s the one who always makes it into a fight when Hui just wanted to talk. Maybe Shinwon made Hui feel that way for a long time. 

“I know what you mean,” he whispers. He didn’t want Hui to feel like everything he said was coming out wrong anymore. “You should tell me if you ever feel that way with me. We can talk through it.”

“Okay,” Hui grins. “Your turn.”

“It’s yours. I gave you mine,” Shinwon decides. Hui narrows his eyes at him, so Shinwon just mimics him back until Hui gives in. 

“If you could have a superpower, what would it be?” Hui queries. 

“Invisibility,” Shinwon replies. 

“Why?” Hui wonders, completely befuddled. 

“I’m nosy,” Shinwon informs him. “So keep your phone locked.”

“You’re really bold,” Hui says with a laugh. 

“Sometimes,” Shinwon confirms. 

The two continue their way through the game, asking each other silly questions and laughing at each other’s responses. Shinwon knows most of Hui’s answers, but he’d grown desperate to talk to him over the past two days. He and Hui, even as they got older and fought more, talked to each other constantly. They would get in screaming fights, and an hour later Shinwon would text Hui because he just _had_ to tell him about something he saw on Twitter. Kino always lectured them about codependency, but neither of them really listened. Shinwon thinks now that he was probably right. 

“Alright, my final question,” Hui sings.

“You better make it good,” Shinwon taunts. 

“This is a very serious one,” Hui announces. “No laughing.”

“Okay, I promise,” Shinwon says, though he’s already holding back a laugh at merely Hui telling him not to laugh. 

“Is this a date?” Hui asks. Shinwon would’ve hated to admit it, but his face flushed at the suggestion. He’d been on hundreds of dates with Hui, but it had been a really long time since he’d been on that first one. 

“Do you want it to be a date?” Shinwon asks. Hui nods. “Then, yeah. It is.” 

“Good.”

Hui links their hands together, and Shinwon doesn’t ever want him to let go. He was already fantasizing of when he got to go home, and he could apologize to present day Hui and hold _his_ hand. Shinwon wished he would’ve never let him leave in the first place. How stupid did someone have to be to let that happen? Every minute Shinwon was stuck here felt like an eternity because it meant he was still asleep in his timeline, and his Hui was probably driving aimlessly around. Was he crying? Did he make Hui cry? How could he just sit here holding past Hui’s hand, knowing current Hui was upset? 

“We should head back to our rooms. It’s almost midnight,” Shinwon suggests, pulling his hand away. “Hanging out on a cold roof is gonna stop being romantic and start being a horror movie pretense soon.”

“Right, yeah,” Hui agrees, pulling away. “Wait! I never even played you anything.”

“Um, that’s okay,” Shinwon assures him. “By our next date, you’ll have finished the song, and you can play it for me then.”

“Okay,” Hui whispers, and Shinwon swears he can _see_ the gears turning in Hui’s head. Shinwon supposed the pressure he’d placed on Hui by giving him an actual deadline to finish it was forcing his creativity to start flowing. 

Shinwon helps Hui fold his blanket back up, and the pair exit the rooftop. Shinwon can’t help but usher Hui along. He needed to talk to Yanan. He couldn’t do this anymore. When they reach Shinwon’s room, it takes everything he has not to simply go inside without anything but a quick _seeya!_

“I had a really nice time tonight,” Hui whispers, gently reaching for Shinwon’s hand again. Shinwon holds back a sigh. He was usually a sucker for how affectionate Hui was, but, at this moment, he just needed him to say goodnight. 

“Me, too,” Shinwon says back. “We should make plans for a real date.”

“Okay,” Hui says. “I’ll text you.”

“Perfect.”

Hui leans in, and Shinwon considers rebuilding his relationship with God whenever it’s just for a hug, not a kiss. After they pull away, Hui finally says goodbye, and Shinwon slips into his dorm. 

He stands with his back against the door, counts to ten, then promptly exits the room again once he’s sure Hui is gone. 

Shinwon marches down to Yanan’s dorm room and knocks just loud enough to signal his presence. He didn’t want to wake up Yanan’s roommate, but, in this particular instance, Shinwon was willing to accept casualties. 

“What are you doing? We’re trying to blend in!” Yanan snaps, stepping out of the room and pulling the door shut. Shinwon scoffs at the sight of Fake Yanan all decked out in Yanan’s silk pajama set. He really did think his travel guide was having more fun than he was. 

“I want to go home,” Shinwon demands. 

“I told you. You can’t go anywhere until They tell me so,” Yanan repeats. 

“You don’t understand,” Shinwon complains. “I need to go home. I need to talk to Hui. My Hui, that is.”

“No can do. Someone has to fall in love with you,” Yanan insists. 

“Someone did!” Shinwon snaps. “Hui did! Years ago! And if I want him to still love me, I need to go home.”

“You have a Hui. You just spent hours on a roof with him—”

“I want _the_ Hui!” he pleads. “This is a waste of my time. I don’t know what you all thought was going to come of this, but I was never going to pursue anybody else. I never wanted anything except him. This was a mistake.”

“You really think this was a waste of your time?” Yanan asks, scrunching up his face. Shinwon nods. “You broke up with him, Shinwon. You told him, to his face, you didn’t need him.”

“I didn’t mean that. That’s why I need to go home,” he says. “I need to talk to him. I can’t do this anymore. Please.”

“It’s out of my hands,” Yanan whispers. “I’m sorry.”

Shinwon shakes his head, storming back to his room. He crawled under his covers and wished this nightmare would end already. He hated Fake Yanan. He hated Them, whoever they were. He hated all of this. 

Eventually, he’s able to quiet his brain enough to fall asleep. 

•••

Shinwon opens his eyes, and he’s back in he and Hui’s apartment. He sighed, rubbing his eyes aggressively. It was all just a stupid dream, just like he’d known from the beginning. 

Still, Shinwon can’t help but think about everything Fake Yanan said. He can’t help but think about how he’d felt just getting to talk to Hui about his music again. He wanted to get back to that. He wanted to talk to Hui about everything, even if it was upsetting and he didn’t really know what he wanted. The one thing he would _always_ want was Hui, and Shinwon had let him leave. 

He crawls out of bed, stopping to fix his hair in the mirror before exiting their bedroom. He needed to find Hui. The most obvious place to check would be with someone in Emerald, but a part of Shinwon was telling him that Hui had gone home to see his mom. It was only around an hour drive, and Hui always insisted his mom’s cooking was the solution to every problem in his life. 

Shinwon decides to go with his gut and drive out to Hui’s parents’ house. He heads for the door, grabbing his keys off the table in the living room as he walked past. They jingled in his hand as he tried to pull on his tennis shoes so he could leave. 

“Where are you going?” 

Shinwon’s eyes light up, immediately pulling the shoe he had halfway onto his foot completely off. He felt so relieved to see Hui. Shinwon would’ve driven a million miles for him, but finding him back home was a good sign for the state of their relationship. 

“To find you,” Shinwon replies exhaustedly, tangling both of his hands into Hui’s hair and pulling him close. Hui knit his eyebrows together, looking up at Shinwon in what seemed to be complete confusion. 

“You couldn’t just text me?” he laughs. He reaches up a hand to pat Shinwon’s cheek, and Shinwon feels the life drain out of his body when he notices a tiny, silver band on Hui’s ring finger. 

“What’s that?” he asks, pulling away from Hui’s hair so he can grab his hand and look at the ring closer. 

“Ha ha. You’re so funny,” Hui teases dryly. “I don’t wear it enough, I know. It just annoys me when I can feel it scratching against the neck of my guitar.”

Shinwon just nods awkwardly, trying to make sense of the millions of thoughts and theories whirring past in his brain. Was it real? Had Fake Yanan convinced Them to let him come home? Had Hui started to fall in love with him on that rooftop? How was he supposed to know what was reality and what wasn’t?

“Right,” Shinwon replies. He didn’t want Hui to think he was crazy, so he just keeps his thoughts to himself. 

“Are you okay? I was actually about to head to rehearsals, but if you need me—”

“No, no,” Shinwon insists. Perhaps it would be best if he didn’t try and figure out what was going on in front of Hui. “Go ahead. I was just having Hui withdrawals. I got my fix.”

“Okay,” Hui says, though the suspicion seemed prominent in his voice. “Call me if you need me.”

“I will,” Shinwon replies. Hui leans in to peck his cheek, and Shinwon latches his hands onto either side of his face, forcing him to meet his lips. Hui complies for a minute, then laughs and shoves him away whenever he won’t let go. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, weirdo.” 

Hui leaves seconds later, but Shinwon just stands there for a moment, soaking in his words. It’d only been two days, but he had been dying to hear Hui say it again. 

After a couple of seconds, it occurs to him that Fake Yanan was nowhere to be found and he was almost certainly stuck in an alternate reality now. He wanders about their apartment, looking for any clues as to if that ring meant what he thought it meant and if anything else wasn’t quite the same. 

Everything seems to be in its place. That is, until Shinwon reaches the kitchen. Pinned up on their fridge, Shinwon finds a two sights of interest. 

The first is a confirmation: a save the date card for their wedding. Shinwon had expected himself to feel panicked, and he was anything but. In fact, his predominate feeling was relief; after the past couple of days, he was just glad to be in a timeline where he’d chosen Hui over whatever feelings he had about marriage. They weren’t worth it. He was. 

The next is a set list. In was written on tablet paper, entirely in sharpie. At the top, a title read _EMRLD 1st Wrld Tr: NY_. Shinwon’s heart pounds. A word tour meant Hui had kept up with his music even more than before. He goes down the list, happy to see mostly songs he knew and loved. Then, he realizes _Cafe_ was missing. In its place was a song titled _All the Stars_. Shinwon smiled to himself. It seemed Hui had finished the song after all.


End file.
